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Clear blue water: The Levi Leipheimer diary 2005
Levi Leipheimer shot to prominence when he made the podium at the 2001 Vuelta while riding for US Postal. He spent three years at Rabobank before joining the German Gerolsteiner team for 2005, where he is one of the team's main men for stage race general classifications.
Leipheimer has twice finished in the top ten at the Tour de France, and this year will aim higher if his form allows. "We'll have to wait and see," he says. Follow Levi's progress to the Tour and beyond on Cyclingnews.
July 5, 2005
Goliath takes the day
Hi everyone,
History repeating itself has to be the summary of today's stage.
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Discovery reclaimed their position on the podium and Lance in the yellow. Goliath conquered David today. Goliath being Lance and his army, David being Dave Z and his army. It was such a drag to hear that David crashed and then his team lost by such a small margin.
As for me, well it wasn't good but it's also not so bad. Anything can happen in the mountains and I'm still ready and waiting.
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We got a bad start today for some reason. I think we took pulls that were too long. We should have been taking shorter sprint-type pulls. I was shocked when we hit the first time check and we were fifty seconds down. It felt like we were going so fast but maybe that's because of the tailwind.
Discovery had an average speed of 57.3km/h. We must have been around 55. I thought for sure it was going to rain - it started a little when we were on the start line but it held off. It's a good thing, because the finish had some sketchy turns and it was slightly downhill. It could have been messy.
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It's always a disappointment to lose time but I'm definitely not discouraged. It could always be worse. We tied with Banesto today and I don't know how they broke the tie. They were seventh and we were eighth...
Ahh, it doesn't really matter.
Aside from the race there isn't much interesting to report. We're well into the swing of a grand tour. Wake up, eat, pack up, dress, drive, race, drive, shower, eat, massage, sleep. If you just string these things together for three weeks, that's a grand tour. Same stuff different hotel, every day.
It must be a buzz for the young guys doing their first grand tour, but after a while it becomes the routine and you are just focusing on getting the job done. That's the nature of the job.
Better get some sleep for tomorrow's string of events. Another flat stage bumper
car ride. See you tomorrow,
Levi
2005 diary entries
Tour of Germany
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August 22: Huge rabbits and a huge win
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Tour de France
- July 25: Another Tour chapter closed
- July 22: Legs do the talking
- July 21: Running naked
- July 20: Another day of punishment
- July 19: Great guy, true professional
- July 17: Just surviving
- July 16: A really tough day
- July 15: Impressive Horner - & more traffic woes
- July 14: A special French day
- July 13: Taking on the Galibier
- July 12: School's back in
- July 10: Waiting for the real race
- July 9: A strange day
- July 8: Fair Deutschland!
- July 7: Not another flat stage!
- July 6: A bad joke...
- July 5: Goliath takes the day
- July 4: Fast, furious and nervous
- July 3: Slightly controlled confusion and stress
- July 2: Not great, but not catastrophic
- July 1: Standing on the edge of another Tour
Tour de Georgia
- April 24: On the midnight plane to Girona
- April 23: Raw power
- April 22: Dodgeball
- April 21: The Raining of Rome
- April 20: Peter's March
- April 19: Aliens racing in Tour de Georgia
- April 18: Back in the USA
Cyclingnews interviews with Levi Leipheimer
February 2005
September 2003
May 2003
November 2002
January 2002
